Cutting tools are used in a variety of applications to cut or otherwise remove material from a workpiece. A variety of cutting tools are well known in the art, including but not limited to knives, scissors, shears, blades, chisels, machetes, saws, drill bits, etc.
A cutting tool often has one or more laterally extending, straight or curvilinear cutting edges along which pressure is applied to make a cut. The cutting edge is often defined along the intersection of opposing surfaces (bevels) that intersect along a line that lies along the cutting edge.
In some cutting tools, such as many types of conventional kitchen knives, the opposing surfaces are generally symmetric; other cutting tools, such as many types of scissors, have a first opposing surface that extends in a substantially normal direction, and a second opposing surface that is skewed with respect to the first surface. More complex geometries can also be used, such as multiple sets of bevels at different respective angles that taper to the cutting edge. Scallops or other discontinuous features can also be provided along the cutting edge, such as in the case of serrated knives.
Cutting tools can become dull over time after extended use, and thus it can be desirable to subject a dulled cutting tool to a sharpening operation to restore the cutting edge to a greater level of sharpness. A variety of sharpening techniques are known in the art, including the use of grinding wheels, whet stones, abrasive cloths, etc. A limitation with these and other prior art sharpening techniques, however, is the inability to precisely define the opposing surfaces at the desired angles to provide a precisely defined cutting edge.